1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a method according to the preamble of claim 1 for capturing three-dimensional images of objects as well as to an assembly according to the preamble of claim 8 for capturing three-dimensional images of objects.
Methods and assemblies of the invention will particularly be used for providing three-dimensional images of teeth. The areas of use cover the provision of digital teeth and jaw impressions, the provision of diagnostic aids, monitoring dental treatments and the implementation of reliable check-ups of implants. Apart from other areas of use in the fields of medical and industrial technology, for example for endoscopies, it is generally possible to use said method and assembly for stereometric measurements of areas which are difficult to access.
The acquisition of stereometric images of areas which are difficult to access, for example of teeth in the oral cavity of human beings, constitutes the background of the present invention. The difficulties in this connection consist in the required miniaturization of the capturing unit, on the one hand, and in the required high reliability of the method, on the other hand. Particularly in the area of dentistry, dimensions of about 0.1 mm may be of relevance, so that a resolution in the range of about 0.01 mm is required in order to be able to record all the details of the objects to be imaged at a sufficiently high resolution.
According to the state of the art, dental measuring devices for capturing three-dimensional images are known. A significant disadvantage of these devices consists in the mostly unhandy and bulky dimensions of the sensor parts which are advanced to the objects to be imaged, as a high number of different components may be required in the image area.